Local Agencies Conduct Emergency Management Drill
Local agencies take time out of their week to practice response to an emergency situation.
Tuesday, a number of agencies participated in a Regional Emergency Management Drill.
The drill was taking place in a number of northeast Georgia counties.
In Toccoa, the site for the drill was on Falls Road.
Stephens County Hospital Director of Nursing Faye Taylor said that the drill in Toccoa involved an already busy hospital having to then take on even more.
“What it involved was that we were already in a strained situation at the hospital, I guess you could say, with a high number of flu patients and we were at about 95 percent capacity with flu in the scenario and on top of that, we had a severe weather situation come through our area,” said Taylor. “Pruitt Health Care was our site where they had damage from a possible tornado.”
Taylor said that the hospital’s main challenge was to have patients transported there when they were already taxed with patients due to the flu.
Joining Stephens County Hospital in the local drill were the Toccoa Police Department, Toccoa Fire Department, Stephens County EMS, Stephens County Sheriff’s Office, and Stephens County EMA/E-911 Center.
According to Taylor, the hospital had a command center set up and was in communication with people in Gainesville and surrounding counties who were all dealing with the same thing.
She said she is pleased with how it went overall.
“It was a good learning experience,” said Taylor. “We had some people here from the state who were actually observing our performance in the command center and the hospital and they were very complimentary.”
Taylor went on to say that she appreciates all of the support received for the drill.
“I just want to thank all of the agencies that did participate, especially Pruitt Health,” said Taylor. “We had not done an exercise with them before and I felt it was a good learning experience for them as well.”
Taylor said that planning for the drill had gone on since late last year.